Yes, we messed up the order of things in the interest of time and happiness, and had our coffee before the food. No, we are not ashamed (well, maybe a little).
This pizza was beautiful. It was fantastic. I would eat another two.
Now for yesterday. I could not write a blog post because I did not have wifi, but it was a combination of super eventful and super uneventful. The morning, I will say, was eventful. We were lucky enough to receive a guided tour of the Moulin Rouge. Note that this one venue is the single largest consumer of champagne in all of France.
I met two friends a bit early, after my stunning breakfast, and we went to search for some café beforehand. However, it is quite a touristy area, and we ended up at a Starbucks. Well, it was an interesting cultural experience, and my firs time having Starbucks in France. I can't complain! I didn't order anything, but I took pictures.
Starbucks Pancakes, across from Moulin Rouge. France...
They also have french toast. Very Amercian, n'est-ce pas?
In honor of Valentine's Day, I assume (I hope!)
Then, we went across the street and had one of the most interesting tours of my life. This is partly because, with a historian tour guide and a dancer, we had a very complete experience (minus the show, of course!). We even went backstage, and saw the dressing rooms and the costumes. It was really incredible. One costume can cost €15 000 so you really don't want to ruin one!
The beautiful boutique inside is almost as much a spectacle as the show!
Because why have only one über-expensive chandelier?
Welcome, friends, to the Cabaret.
Seating for 900. At the sides and behind me as well. No wonder they use so much champagne!
A hilarious takeoff on the Panthéon, this is dedicated to the young women the Moulin Rouge recognizes. Look it up if you don't get the joke!
After going backstage (no photos allowed), we explored…la toilette!
Because why wouldn't they have Mouin Rouge-themed floor tiles?
And posters, and mirrors...
Each stall is named for a famous dancer. I used the most famous of all, La Goulue (which means the woman who drinks a lot; unfortunately, she drank rather too much and died quite young of alcohol poisoning).
After the tour, two friends and I headed off to get lunch before parting ways (I was heading to Lyon, and had all my stuff with me the whole time). We took Ligne 2 to 12, and got off at Madeleine (where I could get straight on Ligne 14 to Paris Bercy, the train station I needed). Place de la Madeleine, however, is known for its food, so finding food on a student-budget was not exactly a pice of tarte. However, we were lucky enough to find a little place with very good formules, including a forumle pizza for only €5! This included a slice of pizza, a dessert, and a drink.
It was quite good, although I started with the dessert because my friend had the last slice of pizza and I was waiting for the next to come out. I also gave her my Orangina, because I didn't want it. Unfortunately, they changed the pizza flavor, so instead of a delicious-looking eggplant-tomato pizza, I had a ham and mushroom pizza (which is not exactly my cup of tea), so, for revenge, I do not have a photo!
My tarte au poivre
I made it to the train station with more than enough time to spare. The wait was fine, the ride as well. The train system in France is very smooth, very easy. I did homework! My cousin meet me at the gare when I arrived in Lyon, and we went back to her place to deposit my "luggage" (i.e. a small backpack) before heading out to her friend's apartment for dinner. It was really nice; there were five of us in all, and different people brought different things, so we had carrots and dip, chips, and some sort of pâté thing for starters, then a tartiflette that the hostess made, which was fantastic, and then the tarte praline, a lyonnaise specialty, that my cousin brought. It was all quite pleasant, I learned some excellent (well, okay, terrible) french puns, and that the "CDH" is the "Court de Droits Humains" or the European human rights court. You could conclude that the night was productive. I thought it was fun.
See? I did work on the train! Evidence!!
This morning, I awoke at 8h to a beautiful view of the Cathédrale. Had I taken a photo then, it would have included a sunrise. Instead I went and had breakfast (croissants!!). By the time I returned, sensibly realizing that, of course, I should take a picture of the medieval cathedral sitting right outside my window, the view wasn't quite as spectacular. As Robert Frost once noticed, "Nothing gold can stay".
Cathedral minus sunrise
My cousin and I went to the Musée de Beaux-Arts, where we saw numerous statues, some Egyptian/Greek/Roman/Islamic art, and tons of paintings! I found a Monet that reminded me of my friend, an impressionist aficionado, so I took a picture for her. I was in search of Le Monomane by Gériault, a specific portrait of the kleptomaniac that he painted as part of a series commandé by a scientific society hoping to understand madness. It seems, however, that they replaced it with a different one from their collection, so I took a picture of that instead. While it is too bad I couldn't find my special Monomane, now, at least, I have two!
Blurry Monet. Impressionist photography?
Another Monomane.
This room is VERY Louis XIV. Color, size, theme, size...
The courtyard is almost a beau art of its own!
We walked back to her place for lunch. She lives with her parents and her younger brother (because she studies law here in Lyon) and her mom made a lovely lunch of a salad with avocado and little meat things in it (I think it was meat…) and a risotto with some sort of meet in it. All very tasty, of course!
She teaches English to refugees in the afternoon, so I went with her dad to visit the Museum of the Resistance and Deporation in WWII. It was fascinating, and I am really glad I went, even though it is not exactly a purely leisure activity. It was especially interesting as a tie-in with my course on the history of the Second World War and I have learned a lot more about the French perspective and experience of the war that I never knew before! This gave me far greater grounds to appreciate and understand the museum. Before you go, learn about Maréchal Pétain, the régime de Vichy, the Ligne Maginot, etc. It helps!
Outside the museum. it was raining.
Leaving the museum. It was sunny.
The Rhône, looking South, with clouds.
The church with two towers, one of which has metal tiles, the other, brick.
The Cathédrale de Lyon at night
We walked back because it had become such a nice day, and it was dark by the time we had made it home and enjoyed a nice afternoon tea with little chocolate bars. After helping prepare dinner, I had the chance to work a bit. We were expecting a dinner guest, another American student (from Reno) who is studying French here and staying with a close family friend (close as in a good friend, and close as in half a block away).
He turned out to be quite nice, and we all had quite a nice apéritif. I don't know what it was I drank, but it was nutty and nice, and went well with the olives, peanuts, pickled garlic, sausage, and chips. We were waiting for my cousin's oldest brother, who was taking the train in from Rennes. When he arrived, we sat down to a marvelous chicken with a potato gratinée and carrots, all mixed together. Then, we had a vast assortment of cheeses, all of which were fantastic (and one of which was a green pesto cheese that my returning cousin (prodigal son?) brought from Bretagne, which I thought was quite good and most of the others disliked. This was followed by a special Lyonnais gâteau that one only finds around Mardi Gras, some sort of little dough thing, and clementines, and then we sat in the Salon until everyone got tired.
The end.
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